Even with eight regulars missing from their starting line-up, Westport United showed no mercy to Charlestown Athletic in the Sportspark on Sunday. No less than seven different Westport United players got on the score sheet in their 7-2 route of the east Mayo side. Westport struck four goals on the bounce from injury time in the first half until the 56th minute of the contest, to turn at 1-0 lead into a 5-0 lead and sap the fight out of a Charlestown Athletic team who up until that point had been doing their best to hang in with home-team.
Dave Cameron opened the scoring 12 minutes in when he swept home a free-kick from the edge of the area past Keelan Horkan in the Charlestown goal. The Athletic custodian pulled off a number of good saves during the game and the score could have been much worse, only for his interventions.
The game was held up for a five minute period late in the first half when Charlestown striker Michael Corrigan twisted awkwardly and looked to have done serious damage to his knee. Hopefully, the injury to Corrigan won’t be too serious.
In injury time in the half, Michael O’Rourke put United 2-0 when he slotted home from close range after Horkan had parried a shot from Darren Browne.
Whatever thoughts Charlestown had of getting back into the game in the second half, were killed off almost as soon as the game restarted. Jamie Fallon found the net within a minute of the restart and that was quickly followed up by goals from Pat Fitzgerald and Philip Keegan. The tricky Hassan Orange pulled a goal back for Charlestown Athletic on the hour mark. But there was no let up from United, as Vinny O’Malley dinked the ball over Horkan to make it 6-1, Patrick McDonnell pulled one back from the spot for the visitors, but the final word was left to Darren Brown who scored lucky number seven and completed the rout.
On Saturday night, Straide and Foxford United’s winning start to the season was brought crashing back down to earth by Castlebar Celtic in Foxford. Celtic went into the lead nine minutes in when Gerard O’Boyle finished to the net from the edge of the area after some good build up play down the right ended up with Ioseph O’Reilly and Dara Duffy linking up to set up O’Boyle. Celtic doubled their advantage 11 minutes later when full back Stephen Walsh’s cross-come-shot evaded everyone including Damien Hughes in the Straide and Foxford goal and nestled right in the top corner of the net.
It looked like Celtic could push on and grab a few more goals before the end of the half, but Straide and Foxford United held out until half time. After the turn around, the home team came out a changed side and really should have taken at least a point from the game. The camped inside the Celtic half for long periods, but wayward shooting cost them in the end. Paul Fitzpatrick, Paul Moran, Michael Guilfoyle and Peter Quinn all had guilt edged chances to find the back of the net, but they failed to find a way past Stephen Cafferkey and saw a number of shots go just past the post. Aidan Flatley’s team will be disappointed to have not got something from the game, while Stevie Gavin can now have his side put their full concentration on their up coming Connacht Cup Final.
The champions got their season back to winning ways on Saturday night when they got the better of hosts Iorras Aontaithe in Carenash with a 3-0 win. Martin McIntyre’s men slumped to their second defeat in as many weeks and they had no answer to the champions who picked up the points thanks to goals from Brendan Lavelle, Pat Duffy and Daniel Gorman.
On Sunday afternoon Manulla picked up their second win on the bounce with a 3-1 win against Fahy Rovers in Moneen. Darren Creaby put Fahy into a 1-0 lead not long after the half-hour mark. But Manulla pulled themselves level before the break when . Mark Mongan levelled the contest up for half-time and in the second half the blues moved up through the gears and won the game thanks to strikes from Shane Durkan and Ben Frayne (direct from a corner kick ).
Moy Villa and Ballyheane played out a 2-2 draw in Attymass on Sunday afternoon, with the home-team going into a 2-0 lead at the break, before Ballyheane pulled the game back level in the second half.
